Gustafsson says he must improve to keep place

STUTTERING Swede Simon Gustafsson knows he needs to “pull his finger out” if he’s going to hang on to his place in the Robins side.

The former Eastbourne man got off to a decent start in Swindon kevlars before engine trouble caused his performances to drop off in recent weeks, resulting in only 14 points from his last four meetings.

However, the Swede is hopeful those mechanical problems are behind him as he is likely to be aboard a new engine this evening, and the second string is keen to make up for lost time as he knows he and his teammates can’t take their team places for granted.

“Things haven’t been so good recently and I’ve been struggling for a few meetings and have underperformed so I really want to get back into some form again,” he said.

“It was sad to see Nicolai (Klindt) go but it shows you really can’t take your spot for granted, none of us can, because if you underpeform you can get sacked. It’s the same in every area of life, you have to perform and keep doing what you’re doing.

“I don’t think anyone really likes having that pressure but then again we all want to win meetings and we all want to perform so we all know that if we don’t perform we won’t be in the team.

“That’s the same for Sweden and Poland where, if anything, it’s even worse, because teams are a bit more patient in England.

“We haven’t had the best of starts to the season so we all need to pull our fingers out, especially me, so hopefully Thursday will be a good meeting.”

Gustafsson revealed his recent struggles have all been down to the engine trouble which was caused after his kit went away for a service following a decent start to the campaign.

“I’ve ordered a new one and hopefully, if everything goes to plan, we will have it on Thursday,” he said.

“It’s all been engine trouble really and there’s a few issues. The old one went alright in the first couple of meetings and then we had a few problems with it and sent it away for a service, but we didn’t manage to get it quite right for the next one.

“It seemed like it had lost all it’s power and you definitely need some power around Swindon because it’s such a long track. The new engine is from a tuner I’ve used in Sweden and Poland for a while so it should be good stuff.”